Baldwin new Miner coach

Tuesday

Jun 11, 2013 at 8:36 PMJun 11, 2013 at 8:39 PM

Former Waynesville High standout hired as men's basketball assistant.

Former Waynesville High School standout Marques Baldwin, who served as an assistant coach at Westminster College last season, has been named as the new assistant men's basketball coach at Missouri S&T.Baldwin takes over the position vacated by Aaron Coombs, who stepped down to join the coaching staff at Missouri Western State University earlier this spring."I like that Coach Baldwin is from a well-coached, successful system under Matt Mitchell at Westminster," said Miner head coach Jim Glash. "Another plus is that several of our current players have worked out with and played against Marques and each expressed their respect for his talents during the hiring process. In addition, having played and coached in Missouri, Marques has already established strong ties to many high school and junior college coaches in the state which will be a huge benefit in recruiting.""We are pleased to have Marques join the Miner family," said S&T director of athletics Mark Mullin. "His enthusiasm, experience, and commitment to student-athletes will be a great addition to our men's basketball program, the department, the campus, and the community. I am excited for him to get started as I know he is."During Baldwin's first season on the Blue Jays' staff in 2012-13, they finished with a record of 19-7 and ended up in a tie for second in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 12-4 record. He joined Westminster's staff prior to last season after spending two seasons as the head coach at Fulton High School.He was an assistant coach at Fulton for one season prior to becoming the head coach in the spring of 2010 and also served as an assistant at Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park, Kan.A native of Waynesville, Baldwin played under Tom Bildner at Waynesville High and helped lead the Tigers to a district championship as a senior in 2002.Baldwin played collegiately at Mineral Area College and at Lubbock Christian University. At LCU, Baldwin averaged 9.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and a steal per game in 58 games played during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. He shot close to 50 percent from the field and better than 34 percent from three-point range."As a player, Marques was a multi-dimensional individual and that has carried over to his coaching," Glash said. "He will be able to work with both the guards and the post players and I'll be able to rely heavily on those abilities. In addition to his coaching, he has a great, enthusiastic personality and will fit in extremely well with the campus and community."